Perrie Edwards reveals 'toxic' engagement to Zayn Malik impacted her romance with Alex

Former Little Mix singer Perrie Edwards has opened up about her failed engagement to Zayn Malik, 32, and how their 'toxic' romance impacts her relationship with fiancé Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

Perrie, who shares three-year-old son Axel with footballer Alex, describes the former One Direction singer as her "first love" but admits their time together was far from healthy.

The mum-of-one, 32, and Zayn struck up a romance shortly after Little Mix won The X Factor in 2011, with things moving fast. Zayn popped the question in 2013 and even got a tattoo of Perrie on his arm.

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But the good times didn't last and the two pop stars announced the end of their engagement in July 2015. Perrie would later reveal that Zayn, who quickly struck up a romance with Gigi Hadid in the wake of their split, actually dumped her via text message.

Speaking on today's episode of We Need To Talk, the podcast from Paul C Brunson, Perrie looks back on her time with Zayn and the lessons she has learnt from her 'first love'.

"We were engaged to be married, but when I look back now, it was a little bit toxic," she tells Celebs Go Dating star Paul. Answering how she got through the heartbreak, Perrie admits: "The girls.

"It was really hard to have relationships because we were never home. And I remember it came out in the press that I was seeing Alex. And my dad, he was just fuming.

"My brother was fuming. You've just dated a boy band member who's completely shattered your soul. And now you're going for a footballer. And I was like, I think I love him. Alex and I have been through a lot."

Paul later asks how her relationship with Zayn, and its bitter ending, shaped how she loved again after their split. "Probably not good. It wasn't it wasn't ideal. I think it definitely at the time, I thought everything we experienced in our relationship was normal," Perrie muses.

"Because it was my first relationship, first love. I was like, oh, this is how it's supposed to feel. It's supposed to feel a little bit toxic in some ways. This is probably normal.

"And then when I become single, I was almost thinking like I never, ever want to go through that again. I didn't even want to meet anybody. I was like, that's me done. I don't think I could bear that pain. Like the pain of heartbreak is so grim that I remember thinking I'm done with men forever. That's me done.

"And then when I met Alex, I had so many issues in our relationship at the beginning that I probably didn't notice at the time. But now reflecting back, I'm thinking, oh, that probably wasn't, it wasn't good. And I've noticed it a lot."

Perrie has been with former Liverpool and Arsenal midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain since 2017, welcoming their first baby Axl into the world in 2021, and they became engaged in 2022.

Zayn currently lives in America and co-parents daughter Khai, four, with supermodel Gigi Hadid.

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